Kunio Nakagawa

Kunio Nakagawa (23 January 1898-24 November 1944) was a colonel of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. He commanded Japanese forces during the battle of Peleliu, where he committed suicide after inflicting heavy losses on the United States.

Biography
Kunio Nakagawa was born on 23 January 1898 in Kumamoto Prefecture of the Empire of Japan and graduated 30th in his class from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1918, serving with the Army of Taiwan and during the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937. He proceeded to fight in the Second Sino-Japanese War and took command of the IJA 14th Division in Palau, and he was ordered to defend the island of Peleliu from the United States. On 15 September 1944, US troops landed on Peleliu and Nakagawa ordered his men to defend the island to the last man, and they inflicted several losses on the US Marine Corps. It was the bitterest battle of the war for the USA's Marines, but on 24 November 1944 Nakagawa declared "our sword has broken and we have run out of spears". He cut himself open in the ritual of seppuku to preserve his honor and died of his disembowelment, with his remains discovered in 1993.